I’m sure it’s happened to you …

You’re innocently surfing the web on your laptop, desktop or phone. Or to get your mind off your work, you check out that one little article on a news site, magazine or blog.

And 30 minutes later you’re still there, clicking around.

Or … you reach your limit of “free articles” and decide to take the plunge and pay so you can read all the other great stuff they’re linking to.

How does that happen?

It’s not an accident. These are professionals who know what intrigues you, excites you and interests you. And they focus crafting their subject lines and link titles with hooks and topics you find hard to resist.

Would you like to know their secrets?

So how you can create subject lines, headlines and links your readers gotta follow? Lets take a lesson from the pros:

Here’s what popped onto one ONE SCREEN when I clicked on one Wall Street Journal article in the news feed of my device:

If you found these titles as fascinating as I did, here are some ways you can apply what makes them interesting to your own content:

As humans, our well being comes first. It’s instinctual. And anything that might interfere with that catches our attention in a big way.

This link implies that I might be needlessly exposing myself to danger. But that challenge to my safety can be easily remedied if I simply click on the link and read the article.

Are your prospects doing things that might needlessly put their own physical, financial or emotional well-being in jeopardy? A subject line or link that calls their attention to that ups your chances of getting a click.

It’s like the link is a magic door that liberates me from loss or threat. Why wouldn’t I click it?

Subject lines or click titles that go against the grain, and upend our expectation of how the world works, are bound to arouse our curiosity, and move us to click.

• You’re a victim of embezzlement … and the IRS comes after you?
• Your sales drop 50% … but you double your profits?
• How you stop dating … but find your future husband in 2 months after 6 years of trying?

None of these make outward sense. Which is what makes them irresistible. Trying to turn away from them is like turning off the TV in the middle of a mystery whodunnit.

Sure this one takes extra work. But you can be handsomely rewarded when you use it.

I once heard Clay Collins, the founder of LeadPages say, “If there’s a magic power in marketing, it’s simplification.”  Taking something your followers find confusing, and simplifying it creates a huge rush of anticipation and curiosity about exactly how you’re doing it.

And moves them to take action to find out how you’ve done it.

Sure, health care spending might not be on your top 10 list of cool topics.  But if you can take something that is on my top 10 list, that’s confused me for years, and help explain it to me in just a few simple charts, you get my click.

Somewhere, someplace in your past, you have some crazy numbers that are going to intrigue your audience enough to move them to click.

You may not have tweeted almost 5,000 times, or be a celebrity (extra click points!) like Elon Musk. But you may have done something that’s even more interesting to your readers. Like the time I sold 119 spaces in an eight-week course with a list of 950 (and no partners when the launch began).

You don’t have to be rich. You don’t have to be famous. But numbers (especially large ones) create tons of curiosity. And when you can use that curiosity to teach some important points, everyone wins.

Human beings are deadline driven creatures. Deadlines make our adrenaline rush and capture our imagination. Think about:

• Buzzer beating finishes in sports.
• Opening the Best Picture Envelope at the Academy Awards.
• Watching who can eat the most Nathan’s Hot Dogs in 10 minutes.

Deadlines that capture your audiences attention can take many forms: A time-limited discount, a countdown on a big reveal of a new offering, or your own attention grabbing challenge, like making X number of blog posts, sales calls or videos in a specific period of time.

When you use them creatively, almost nothing is better at capturing and directing your audiences attention and moving them to act.

Now … are these the only five ideas that move your audience to click?
Of course not!

But here’s the key … I found these five on ONE SCREEN of my smart phone when reading a single article on the Wall Street Journal.

The point is: Ideas to capture the attention of your audience are all around you. The key is to take note of what captures your attention. And find a way to adapt what did the trick for you, so you can keep your own audience engaged, interested and inspired.